by Cheree Alsop
“Who’s the Maes?” Drake asked.
I could see the same question on Julianne’s face. I figured they had a right to know since everyone was in danger thanks to my slipup.
“The Monster Abolition and Eradication Society,” I told them. “They’re monster hunters, basically. According to Professor Briggs, they travel the world hunting down and killing anyone they think is a monster.” I looked at Drake. “Do you remember the mean vampire from the Academy?”
He nodded.
“That’s Don Ruvine. He’s the head of the nation’s vampire coven and the father of one of my classmates.” I almost called Vicken a friend, but that would have been a very long stretch. I went on with, “The Don’s wife was captured by the Maes. They’re expecting some sort of demand, but they haven’t heard back. His daughter was also taken by demons while she was at the Academy.”
“They have really bad luck,” Drake said.
Dad shook his head. “No wonder he was in such a bad mood. I shouldn’t have goaded him.”
“You goaded a vampire?” Julianne said with horror in her voice.
I shook my head. “Dad was fine. He was just trying to defend me. Werewolves aren’t exactly welcome at the Academy.”
“But isn’t that why we sent you there?” Julianne said, trying to understand. “You’re supposed to be safer at that school and now I’m hearing about demons kidnapping people and vampires who have some sort of a vendetta against werewolves? That doesn’t sound very safe to me.”
I gave her my most reassuring smile. “I need to be there, Juli. Trust me. It’s a good place.” I let the worry I felt show. “But something evil is trying to hurt the students and I think I’ve found the key to figure out what it is. That’s why I came here.” I looked at Dad. “Is it ok if I go through Mom’s boxes in the attic?”
Surprise showed on his face, but he nodded. “Of course. Whatever you need.”
I took a few more bites of food. It was easier to relax after telling them everything. At least I didn’t feel like I was holding such heavy secrets. I smiled as I listened to the small talk. Drake’s goal of beating all of my records in track sounded like it was going well. As much as I hated seeing my name booted down the list, I was glad my brother was the one doing it. Dad had a few students in his science class who needed to take school a bit more seriously; he wasn’t looking forward to his upcoming parent-teacher conference. Julianne was working part-time at the fabric store until her doctor put her on mandatory leave, though her boss was worried her water would break on the store floor any day now.
I had reached for my cup of orange juice when Julianne said, “Finn, what’s on your hand?”
I was worried at first that she had seen my palm. I had been careful to keep my right hand under the table until I could rewrap it. Maybe she noticed that I wasn’t eating with my dominant hand. But when I followed her gaze, I realized she was looking at the sleeping dragon.
A smile crossed my face. “This is Sparrow.” I turned my wrist over so she could see the little creature.
“She’s amazing,” Drake breathed. “You need to see her fly.” He leaned so far over the table he nearly tipped his cup of orange juice over to get a better view.
“She’s a real dragon?” Julianne asked in surprise.
I nodded. “I showed Sparrow to Dad and Drake at the Academy, but I thought you would like to see her. Watch.”
I brought my wrist up and ran a finger down the dragon’s back. “Sparrow, do you want to wake up? I have someone for you to meet.”
A gasp sounded from my stepmother when the little dragon lifted her black and purple head and gave a yawn.
“She is so precious!” Julianne said.
“She’s incredible,” Drake agreed.
Dad’s voice showed his awe when he said, “It was so amazing when Finn showed it to us at the Academy. I forgot to tell you about the dragon with everything else that happened at the school. I felt like I was in some sort of dream the whole time I was there.”
I turned my hand over and Sparrow walked to my palm. She shook and straightened out her wings.
“And man can she fly!” Drake said.
A buzz caught my ear. I spotted a fly swarming around the overhead light.
“Sparrow, are you hungry?” I asked the dragon. I lifted her so she could see the fly.
“Yes!” Julianne exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to swat that one all morning!”
The instant Sparrow caught sight of the bug, she sprang from my hand and darted after it. Everyone watched with awe on their faces as the dragon circled the fly and then pounced. She brought it back to the table and landed lightly next to my plate. The sound of her crunching up the fly warred with my appetite.
Drake couldn’t take his eyes off her. “That was so cool!” he said.
“Neat,” Julianne agreed with a nod. “Next time we have a fly problem, I’m calling you home.”
“Deal,” I said with a grin.
Dad carefully put out his hand. “Can I pet her?” he asked. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
“You can pet her,” I said. I showed him how to run his finger down her back so her spikes didn’t poke him. “She loves it.”
As if in response to my words, the little dragon lifted her back like a cat so she could be petted more. My dad smiled and ran his fingers down her spikes. When he sat back in his chair, the little dragon pranced closer to him. His smile turned into a pleased grin and he continued to pet her.
“Finn, what happened to your hand?” Julianne asked.
I realized I had reached for my fork with my right hand by habit. I turned it over and heard my stepmom gasp.
“What happened?” she exclaimed.
“Finn, you said it was nothing,” Dad said with a stern expression.
“You knew about it?” Julianne asked him.
Dad nodded. “His friend told me he got burned in class, but Finn told me later he hurt it stopping a demon that attacked the school.” His brow furrowed as he looked at the wound. “But he made me believe it wasn’t bad.” He shot me an accusing look.
I had to admit that it looked horrible. Running on my paw hadn’t done the burn any good. The black edges that curled away from the throbbing red center of my palm gave it a dramatically nasty appearance. I had to admit that it hurt pretty much as bad as it looked, and possibly even worse now that I saw it.
“Someone had to stop the demon. It was trying to kill a student. So I acted,” I said.
It sounded far more heroic than it had been. My instincts had spurred me to react. Bowling over the demon and holding it down despite the flames may have been foolish in hindsight, but it was all I could think of to do. The thought of Claria Fig sleeping soundly in the infirmary made me feel a bit better about my actions.
“Doesn’t your school have some sort of protection against things like that?” Julianne asked. “I mean, I don’t know how it works there, but it sounds like you need it.”
I pulled my hand back without telling her that my team was the protection.
“I’m hoping we won’t need it if I find what I’m looking for,” I told her instead. “Maybe we can end the threat without anyone else being at risk.”
“You, especially,” she replied. “Let me bandage that up before you get an infection.”
I followed her to the kitchen counter and she began to pull the medical supplies from the cupboard she kept overly stocked for just such an event.
“It was wrapped before I phased,” I said sheepishly. “I honestly didn’t think about it after that.”
She paused with the antiseptic in her hand. “So, um….” She stopped as though she didn’t know what to say.
“What?” I probed. “You can ask me anything.”
A hint of red colored her cheeks and she looked down at the ointment in her hand. “Your dad told me all about the werewolf stuff and showed me the picture of your mother, but…well….”
I stared at her and a smile touched my face.
“Do you want to see what I look like as a wolf?”
“It’s stupid of me to ask, I know,” she said quickly. “You don’t have to. You just came a long way and—”
“No,” I said, lifting my good hand. “It’s fine, really. You’ve always been there for us and you had no idea what you were getting into.”
“To be fair, neither did you,” Julianne pointed out.
I smiled. “Yeah. But I need to get out of these clothes anyway. I’ll be back.”
I turned to find Dad and Drake watching me from the table. Dad’s fingers still ran down Sparrow’s back. The little dragon had curled up on his napkin and appeared quite content with the pampering.
“I’ll admit that I’m interested to see what you look like as a wolf,” Dad said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
“Yeah,” Drake said. “The last time you nearly scared me to death. I’m hoping you’re a little less terrifying looking in the light, not wet, and not during the most horrible moment of my life.”
I felt embarrassed by all the attention. “Yeah, okay,” I said with forced nonchalance. “I’ll be back.”
I hesitated in the kitchen doorway and glanced at Julianne. “But don’t hit me with the broom,” I told her.
She laughed and Dad chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll put it away,” she reassured me.
When we went camping last year, a dog from one of the other campgrounds had found his way into our cooler of food. No amount of yelling or scare tactics made the animal leave until Julianne got out the broom from Dad’s truck. It was our family joke that she could handle any intruder with it.
I jogged up the stairs to my room and paused just inside the door. I don’t know why I had expected it to change, but everything had stayed exactly where I had left it. I could tell Julianne had vacuumed by the tracks on the carpet, but she had gone around the sock I left near the door. I think it was their way of letting me know that the room would always be mine. The sentiment was touching, but at the same time, it felt like a ghost lived in the room instead of me.
I sat down on the bed and looked around. The clothes in the closet, the track trophies on the dresser, and the game system in the corner seemed like something from a dream. I had been the guy in the picture on the dresser who flipped backwards off the boat Dad had rented at the lake. In the next photo, a group of our friends, Sebastian included, sat on the bleachers shouting at the high school football game. Everyone looked so carefree and happy. My gaze lingered on Bast’s smiling face before I turned my gaze away.
I reminded myself that my family was waiting for me. They expected me to phase. I was just glad they didn’t know how long it took.
I pulled off my borrowed pants. At least phasing was an excuse to get out of them and into something I actually owned. I pulled off my shirt as well and tossed them in the hoop that dropped to the hamper below my window. At the last minute, I remembered to grab my cellphone out of my pants pocket and shove it in the jeans I planned to wear back to school.
Standing there naked in the middle of my room waiting for the phase to come felt like perhaps the most awkward moment of my life. I didn’t know how to start the phase. Vicken’s words repeated in my mind from when I had told him as much during my attempt to track down his sister after she disappeared.
‘You can’t just make it happen? Doesn’t that make you dangerous?’ he had asked.
I may be dangerous, but I was determined to find some control for my werewolf state. The problem was that I didn’t know if it was possible. There weren’t any other werewolves I could ask. But I had to assume, at least for my sanity, that control was possible.
I let out a slow breath and counted to ten to clear my head. I thought of how it had felt to be a wolf last night, to run through the ditches and along the road with a freedom unlike anything I had ever felt before. I thought of the wind through my fur and the smell of the chickens in the yard I couldn’t see. My fingers began to tingle as I thought of the night with a variety of grays so beautiful I felt as though I had never really seen the night with my human eyes.
The phase pulled me to my knees, but it was milder than I expected. Instead of aching pain at the changing of my limbs, the discomfort was mild as the fur grew, my bones shifted location, and my body accepted the form of the wolf. I didn’t know if it was because this was the first time I had ever chosen to become a wolf, or if it was easier since I didn’t fight it from the beginning, but the end of the phase found me standing comfortably on all fours in my bedroom.
The sock near the door stunk. I snorted and fought back the urge to pick it up in my mouth and put it in the hamper. There were just some things I refused to do as a wolf. With such a long tongue, the dirty sock flavor would probably never leave.
I was grateful I had forgotten to close the door completely. Howling and scratching at it like a common dog so that Julianne would hear me and open it would destroy the last shred of self-respect I had. Instead, I was able to carefully maneuver my claws into the crack and pull it open wide enough that I could shove it aside with my nose. I padded into the hallway and then down the stairs.
“What a cute little dragon,” Julianne was saying. “Do you think we could talk Finn into leaving her here? She’d be very safe.”
“That’d be awesome,” Drake said. “Then I could take her to school and show all of my friends.
I winced when I stepped on the third from the bottom stair and it creaked the way it always did.
“I think he’s coming,” I heard Dad tell them.
Everyone grew quiet.
I paused at the edge of the doorway. My heart thundered in my chest almost as badly as it had the night I fought the demon. I grinned at my own foolish nerves, and then stopped grinning because I realized if I came into the kitchen like that they might think I was a snarling, wild wolf unable to control myself and be truly terrified.
I took a calming breath and padded forward.
“Oh, Finn,” Julianne breathed with a smile on her face. “You’re beautiful!”
I snorted. Being beautiful was the last thing I had expected to hear.
“You do look really cool,” Dad told me. “I, uh, can you understand us?”
I gave a short nod.
“Cool!” Drake exclaimed. He dropped to his knees in front of me. “Can you come to school with me? I could tell everyone I have a trained wolf for a pet. You could do tricks and—”
“Drake,” Dad cut him off. “Calm down. Your brother has to go back to school. He doesn’t have time to pretend to be your pet.”
He shot me a smile as if aware of how strange the conversation was.
“Do you have to brush your fur?” Julianne asked.
“Really?” Dad said. “That’s what you ask him?”
“What?” she replied self-consciously. “It’s a good question. That’s a lot of fur to care for and it’s obvious how healthy it is.” She ran her fingers through the fur at the back of my neck. “It’s probably great for how cold it’s getting outside. Though I’ll bet you shed a lot come summer.”
I snorted again and backed up.
“Oh, right. You should go change back so I can bandage your hand,” she said with a pointed look at my paw. It hurt to put my weight on it. Apparently running so far hadn’t exactly been good on the wound that refused to heal.
“It’s only one day, Finn,” Drake urged. “You can come to school with me today, scare all of my friends, and then go back to your school tomorrow.”
“Drake,” Dad warned.
Drake pointed at the dragon who was still preening under the attention Dad was giving her. “Then how about I borrow the dragon? I wouldn’t get her taken away; I promise.”
Unable to respond, I turned and trotted back up the stairs to my room. Phasing back was even easier. I attributed it to the fact that the moon wasn’t out. It took only a few seconds of thinking about pulling on clean clothes for my body to give up the wolf form and transition into that of being human.
&n
bsp; I grabbed my favorite black long-sleeved shirt that was worn enough to be comfortable but could still pass as fairly tidy, and pulled on underwear and then my pants. I wondered if it would be possible to find the pants I had left behind, but the time it would take to find exactly where the bus had dropped me off wasn’t worth it. Maybe someone who needed them would find my old pair of jeans and be grateful for them. Perhaps they would also burn the underwear.
I mourned the loss of my shoes even more. They were the second pair I had lost from turning into a werewolf. The first, my new pair of sneakers, lay at the bottom of the river from the accident. The pair I had lost last night were my favorite running shoes. I grudgingly pulled on the old pair of sneakers I wore when I mowed the lawn. If I kept it up, I would be living in dollar flip-flops in order to keep from going broke buying shoe replacements.
When I reached the kitchen again, I found that Julianne had already tidied up. She had also made an extra sack lunch.
“Just in case you want something to eat on the way home,” she explained at my look. “Since your dad can’t get out of teaching today, I’m going to go into work and see if I can get my shift changed around so I can drive you back. I hate to think of you on the bus by yourself all that way.”
I gave her a hug. “I appreciate it,” I told her. “And I really am fine on the bus. If it doesn’t work out, it’s the thought that counts.”
She patted my back. When I stepped away, I caught the surprised look she threw my dad at my unusual show of gratitude. I knew hugging wasn’t usually my thing, but her kindness after everything that had happened at the Academy was like a breath of fresh air.
“Thank you,” she replied. “Now let’s see that hand.”
I set my right hand on the counter obediently.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t look good, Finn.”
I nodded. “The doctor at Haunted High said it’s going to take a while to heal.” I didn’t add that he said wounds from demon fire might never heal completely.
“I’m glad you have a doctor there,” she said as she spread ointment across the wound. She looked up at me. “Does everyone call the Academy Haunted High?”